Georges Koltanowski
Number of games in database: 380
Years covered: 1921 to 1994
Overall record: +92 -40 =62 (63.4%)*
* Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
186 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

Georges Gustave Koltanowski was born on the 17th of September 1903 in Antwerp, Belgium. He was awarded the IM title in 1950, an honorary GM title in 1988 and became an International Arbiter in 1960. The USCF also gave him the title of "The Dean of American Chess". More than a player, "Kolty" was also an exhibitor, writer, promoter and showman. Occasionally, he edited a column for newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle, Kitchener Record & others in those syndication chains.

His best tournament wins were Antwerp 1932, Barcelona 1934 and Barcelona 1935. He was Belgian Champion in 1923, 1927, 1930 and 1936.

In spite of his over-the-board prowess, "Kolty" was best known for his exploits in simultaneous blindfold play. When his exhibitions were over, as a finale, he would often recite the complete moves of the games without looking at the board.

Among his many notable blindfold demonstrations, one that is particularly noteworthy is his performance in 1937 at Edinburgh Scotland. There, he played 34 games simultaneously without sight of the boards, scoring +24 =10 in thirteen and a half hours, a world record.

Another record-setting exhibition took place on December 4 1960, in San Francisco, California, where Koltanowski played 56 consecutive games blindfolded, with only ten seconds per move. He won fifty and drew six games.

Koltanowski was one of many masters who chose not to return to Europe after the 1939 Olympiad in Argentina, which coincided with the outbreak of World War II. When the Nazis overran Belgium, several of his family members perished in the Holocaust. Koltanowski was in Guatemala at the time and was allowed to immigrate to the United States, due partly because a chess-playing consul in Cuba had been amazed by one of his exhibitions.

He directed the 1947 US Open, the first time the Swiss System was used for that event, and was greatly responsible for popularizing the Swiss System for tournaments in the US. His last International appearances were playing for the US Olympiad team of 1952 and a match against Henri Grob in 1953.

Nosnibor: The casual game played against Love in 1949 deserves a mention. Good old Koltanowski did a favour for Dr.Ezra Love who within 12 months of this game died from tuberculosis.This game was played by correspondence and Dr Ezra who was not a strong player wanted to beat his father,Ezra Love Senior and therefore came to an arrangement with Kolty for him to make the moves on his behalf while masquerading as the player competing against his father.He had never beaten his father before.In July 1949 just before the end of the game he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and transferred to Sunny Acres TB Sanitorium in Providence R.I.At that point he broke the news to his father and told him that in reality he was playing a master and not his son.On the 11th February 1852 Ezra Love Senior wrote to Koltanowski as follows:-" Dear Koltanowski On your move 21 RxB! you are,after such a long wait receving two resignations...My son passed away... and I too am lost...Thanks for a splendid gameand for giving my son his first victory over his dad.It made him happy.Sincerely yours.Ezra Love Sr."(Source BCM PAGES122/123,1951)

GrahamClayton: Back in 1952, Kolty hosted a chess program on radio station KPFA of Berkeley, California, commencing each Friday night at 9.00 pm. He played a game against the station's listeners, and then analysed the game in future broadcasts. Would anyone know for how long this program ran on KPFA?

docbenway: Koltanowski was an official at a Paul Masson Winery Chess Tournament in the early 1970s and was drawn to a table where 2 guys were playing Las Vegas Chess and slamming the plastic container so hard into the table it seems they would soon drive it right through. He watched for a few moments and bent forward to quietly say, "Gentlemen, maybe somebody would like to play after you." They corrected in mid stream but he was already gone.

parisattack: <GrahamClayton: Back in 1952, Kolty hosted a chess program on radio station KPFA of Berkeley, California, commencing each Friday night at 9.00 pm. He played a game against the station's listeners, and then analysed the game in future broadcasts. Would anyone know for how long this program ran on KPFA?>

The medium is the message, and Kolty appears to have used them all successfully. I have an old LP record "Koltanowski Teaches Chess - Part 1 - My Approach to the Game." It is quite a hoot, as they say in the midwest.

Lighthorse: In the late 1960s, they had a TV program on PBS here in NY with him that I watched faithfully called "Koltanowski on Chess." I still remember he had one lesson on how to do blindfold chess. I tried his method, but never could master it. I also remember his comment that they banned blindfold chess in the USSR, but didn't they realize that imagining moves over a chessboard is almost the same thing?

Phony Benoni: A comment from Koltanowski's report on the 1969 US Open ("Chess Life & Review", November 1969, p.438):

<"A number of players, including a former U.S. Champion, do not resign but just get up and leave the room, allowing their time to run out. And they call themselves "masters!">

Inquiring minds want to know who the U.S. Champion was. If Koltanowski meant somebody at the tournament, it would have been either Arthur Bisguier or Arnold Denker. Had he been speaking in general, he could also have meant Sanuel Reshevsky, Larry Evans, or Robert Fischer.

Phony Benoni: Yes, Koltanowski was never one to let facts stand in the way of a good story. But this sounds more like the complaint of an aggrieved tournament official, or perhaps an older man disgusted with the morals of the young generation.

And, in any event, it must be better to look into the statement rather than rejecting it outright simply because Koltanowski said it.

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